


The alien popsicle

by Bellakitse



Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: Alex is the tired adult in the room, Alien Shenanigans, Hand waving science, Humor, Liz and Michael shouldn't experiment without adult supervision, M/M, Romantic Fluff, Sharing Body Heat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-28
Updated: 2019-09-28
Packaged: 2020-10-29 15:23:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,368
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20798822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bellakitse/pseuds/Bellakitse
Summary: “Okay, so before you say anything, I would like to start by saying that it’s not my fault,”  Liz says over the phone and Alex can feel the beginnings of a headache.****Liz and Michael's latest experiment leaves Michael cold, Alex brings blankets.





	The alien popsicle

“Okay, so before you say anything, I would like to start by saying that it’s _not_ my fault,” Liz doesn’t bother with a greeting or waits for Alex to say hello when he answers his phone.

Alex pauses for a moment, and it’s his ten years of training that keeps him from reacting to her words in any way that might show weakness. Though if they send a chill down his spine, only he knows. Instead, he gets right to the point. “What did you do, Liz and do I need a tactical team?”

“You’re not listening,” Liz argues, pulling the phone away to talk to someone in the background. “I did _nothing_, but I kind of need you to meet me and Michael at his bunker. Like ASAP, we had an itty-bitty hiccup, but it’s nothing, _really_.”

“What-“

“Oh, and bring some blankets,” she talks over him loudly.

“Blankets?” Alex starts to ask. “Liz?” Only to realize that Liz has already hung up.

Alex shakes his head and tries not to worry as he shuts down his laptop. Liz sounded rushed but not in any real panic.

Sure, Michael had mentioned that they were working on something new these days, getting their science- nerd on and _okay _the last time they worked together less than a month ago, Michael ended up turning colors for a week, like a walking, talking mood ring.

But Michael wasn’t hurt by it -just a little embarrassed- and in the end, it had helped them start to get back on track, so really not _so_ bad.

He goes to his linen closet and pulls out two thick wool blankets and then decides on a third, he’s not sure what kind of issue or _hiccup _as Liz put it would require blankets, but he’s going to believe that it can’t be serious if a quilt can fix it. He gets in his car with the blankets requested and starts to make his way towards the Sanders junkyard. He steps on the gas a little harder than usual; he’s not _worried_, just eager to assess the latest situation the mad scientists in their social circle have gotten themselves into now.

He gets to the junkyard in under 20 minutes when usually the ride takes him around 35. The junkyard’s closed for the evening, and there’s no one around as he makes his way to the back where Michael’s airstream and the bunker below it stands. The airstream has been pushed to the side enough to have the hatch open; he figures it’s for him, but it still makes him shake his head. Careless.

“Hello?” he calls out as he gets to the opening, blankets in hand. It takes a moment before Liz’s face appears from below.

“Oh good,” she flashes him a smile that Alex as her friend since they were kids recognizes as her ‘guilty but trying to hide it’ smile.

So much for not her fault, then.

“I'm going to ask again, what did you do, Ortecho?” he looks down at her with his ‘stern airman’ face as Rosa calls it, it works on just about everyone in his life but the Ortecho sisters and Maria. And seeing that all he gets now is a quick eye-roll and a signal for him to throw down the blankets, it seems his stern face is as ineffective as ever with her. With a silent sigh, he starts to climb down the ladder of the bunker and into Michael’s workspace; impressive as always and speaks to Alex’s inner sci-fi geek. He lets himself look around for a moment, curious.

“Stop being such a baby, Mikey, you’re fine,” Liz scolds, drawing Alex’s attention from the tech, putting him instantly on edge at her words. He walks around Michael’s worktable and finds them sitting on the couch Michael has down there for naps. Michael already has a knitted throw around his shoulders, shivering as Liz starts to wrap him in the blankets she requested.

“I-I feel like an f-fucking a-alien popsicle,” Michael gets out through chattering teeth. “A-and don’t c-call me, M-mikey.”

“A _sour _popsicle,” Liz grumbles.

“Someone wants to tell me what’s going on?” he asks again, eyebrow raised, his hands going to his hips when they give him a guilty look.

Michael flashes him a small smile, before giving a full-body shudder and he nudges his shoulder against Liz, nodding in his direction. Obviously more preoccupied with pulling the covers closer around his body than explaining himself.

“First of all, he’s okay,” Liz starts, ignoring the sound of protest Michael gives out.

“We already worked out the antidote, and he’ll be fine in a couple of hours, right now this just needs to run its course like a fever,” she continues calmly. “So, you can put your eyebrow of doom away, Alex, your boyfriend, is fine.”

Alex doesn’t bother to correct her, because no, Michael isn’t his boyfriend yet. They’re taking steps in the right direction, glacially slow baby steps. They haven’t kissed again since Michael told him he still loves him while turning a lovely shade of periwinkle blue. Not that it’s a bad thing, they’re doing things right this time, getting to know each other with the knowledge that they both love each other and that they want to make this work.

He doesn’t tell Liz any of this because frankly what Michael and he are, belongs solely to them and no one else. Also, he knows a diversionary tactic when he sees one. Liz is good, but he’s military, and she’s not pulling a Jedi mind trick on him.

“Anytime you want to get to what _‘this’_ exactly is, I’d appreciate it, Liz,” he answers deadpan. “But please only on your own time.”

Liz gives him an annoyed look. “I hate when you sass me.”

“Only because I’m better at it than you,” he shoots back, his lips twitching at the corners as she huffs. “Now stop trying to distract me and tell me what you two nerds did.”

“J-just tell him, Liz, _G-god_,” Michael gets out, though it’s obvious it costs him to talk.

Liz softens, her defensiveness gone, and she goes to hug Michael. Alex watches as Michael leans into her, pressing his forehead against her neck.

“We were working on something to mask their heat signatures from military equipment,” she explains, and Alex starts to get a sense of the thought process here. Not a bad one to be honest, given that if he can pick up on the different heat signatures of Michael, Max, and Isobel with his equipment, others can too. "And it worked," She continues excited before looking back at Michael as he lets out another full-body shake. "A little too well," She murmurs rubbing up and down Michael's back. "His core temperature started to drop a little too quickly into hypothermia levels."

"That doesn't sound like a small hiccup, Liz," Alex says, feeling a headache coming on. "People die from hypothermia."

"I stabilized him!" Liz argues. "Like I said he's going to be fine, it just needs to run its course."

"If that's the case, then what did you call me for?"

Liz rolls her eyes at him as she stands. Michael makes a grumbling noise as she takes her body heat away from him.

"I called you because Michael could probably use some warm cuddles, and something tells me you both would prefer it come from you and not anyone else, or am I wrong Manes?"

Alex looks at her and then over her shoulder at Michael, who is staring at him with pathetically large eyes as he shivers.

"Do we need you here to monitor his vitals?"

Liz grins victoriously, pleased that he’s caving in. "Nope!"

Alex nods. "Good, then get out, Liz. We can have another conversation about you using Michael as a lab rat later."

“Left nice back in the middle east indeed, _grosero_” Liz shoots back at him, calling him rude in Spanish as she grabs her stuff and heads for the ladder. “Good luck Mikey, a pissy Alex is never fun,” she calls back, flashing them both a bright unapologetic smile.

“Brat,” Alex mumbles, rolling his eyes. He turns back to Michael who is hunched over, curling into himself as he looks at Alex with big sad eyes and Alex rolls his eyes yet again. Knowing that Michael is playing it up, to avoid a lecture like the last time about being the test subject of all the hairbrained ideas he and Liz come up with.

“Can you make it up the ladder shaking this much or are we staying down here?”

“You’re staying?” Michael questions, his expression hopeful.

Alex softens at the question, any annoyance quickly leaving him. It’s not like he’s really mad, and now that he knows Michael is okay, the situation is actually kind of funny like the last time Michael and Liz got up to their shenanigans. That’s what happens when you leave two geniuses alone together without any adults to keep them from getting in trouble.

“Liz, the mad scientist, says you need cuddles,” Alex shrugs casually, feeling anything but. Michael and he haven’t moved past talking and the occasional hug good-bye after having dinner together. Now he’s supposed to hold Michael like it’s nothing, when he’s been dying to do just that since they last kissed. “I have no problem with sharing my body heat with you if you’re okay with it.”

Michael lets out a stuttering laugh, shaking his head. “When have I ever had a problem with having your body pressed against mine? I want that pretty much 24/7,” he gets out through chattering teeth.

Alex doesn’t comment on the short but still painful time when being around him was the last thing Michael wanted because they are moving past that, and they’re still skirting around the Maria situation that they’re eventually going to have to address. Now is not the time to bring it up. Instead, he brings his hands to the top button of his denim shirt and starts to unbutton it. He watches as Michael’s eyes widen.

“Ummm,” Michael stammers causing Alex to smirk, because it doesn’t sound like it’s from him being cold.

“You know how body heat works, right Guerin?” he questions with a teasing look, pleased by the way Michael looks at him as he removes his shirt. A heady feeling coursing through him as Michael’s eyes darken when his hands go for his belt. “It needs to be skin to skin for it to work, do you need help with your clothes, or can you get them on your own?”

Michael shoots up from the couch, letting the blankets drop off his shoulders in his haste, and even though his hands shake, he starts to unbutton his shirt. Or at least he tries. Alex laughs softly stepping forward. He places a hand over Michael’s.

Michael looks at him with those hazel eyes of his that have always sucked Alex in.

“We’re not going to have sex,” Alex states as he starts to unbutton Michael’s shirt and then helps him with his pants. “I’m just putting that out there right now.”

“It would warm me up,” Michael points out, smirking even as he shakes harder without the blankets.

Alex laughs again; he’s in love with a brazen cowboy. “I want to do this right, Michael. I don’t want us to fall into bed and then burn out. It’s why I have been taking it slow. Is that okay?”

Michael looks at him, a shaky smile on his lips that Alex knows has nothing to do with Michael being cold and everything to do with the overwhelming emotions they both always feel coursing between them. “Yeah, if it means I get to keep you forever, we can go as slow as you want.”

Alex sighs, shaking his head. “You’re so fucking good at the romantic declarations, Guerin, let me live a little,” he grins as Michael let’s out a laugh. Removing Michael’s shirt, he pulls him close, his arms going around Michael, his hands running up and down his back to warm him up. Michael clings to him, letting out a purring sound against Alex's neck.

“You’re so warm,” he says, the words muffled.

“And for once you aren’t a furnace,” Alex comments, Michael is warm to the touch, but not as hot as Alex is used to. “We seriously need to talk about you playing little white mouse for Liz.”

“Hmm,” Michael lets out sleepily, the day catching up with him. “Can we talk about it horizontally on the couch?”

Alex doesn’t bother with an answer, instead walks the small distance to the couch with Michael hanging off him. He pulls back to let Michael lay down first before sitting down himself. Making a quick job of taking his prosthetic off, he lays down. Pulling Michael to lay practically on top of him before pulling the covers over them. Michael goes back to burrowing in as close as he can.

Once comfortable, he tilts his head up to look at him. “So, lecture first and then nap?”

Alex rolls his eyes at the question; he can see that Michael is tired. Wasted energy from being cold. “Nap first, then lecture and if I feel you’ve listened maybe making out on the couch like we didn’t get to do as teenagers.”

Michael’s eyes light up, a boyish smile on his face. “How about we reverse that? Making out, lecture, then nap?” he asks hopefully, and he looks so young and joyful, it makes Alex’s heart squeeze, grateful that they’ve gotten to a place where they can be wrapped around each other smiling, teasing, loving. Still, he shakes his head.

“Close your eyes, Michael,” he says softly, running his hand through Michael’s curls when he drops his head back on Alex’s chest. Alex presses a kiss against his forehead, and Michael lets out a sigh.

“You’ll be here when I wake up, right?” Michael asks quietly.

Michael has finally stopped shaking since they laid down together. It’s already getting hot under all the blankets; Alex just holds him a little closer. “I’m not going anywhere.”


End file.
